Many industrial applications, including the aircraft industry, require the use of parts manufactured from high strength alloys. One approach to the production of such high strength alloys has been to develop precipitation hardening alloys. A precipitation hardening alloy is an alloy wherein a precipitate is formed within the ductile matrix of the alloy. The precipitate particles inhibit dislocations within the ductile matrix thereby strengthening the alloy.
One of the known age hardening stainless steel alloys seeks to provide high strength by the addition of titanium and columbium and by controlling chromium, nickel, and copper to ensure a martensitic structure. To provide optimum toughness, this alloy is annealed at a relatively low temperature. Such a low annealing temperature is required to form an Fe--Ti--Nb rich Laves phase prior to aging. Such action prevents the excessive formation of hardening precipitates and provides greater availability of nickel for austenite reversion. However, at the low annealing temperatures used for this alloy, the microstructure of the alloy does not fully recrystallize. These conditions do not promote effective use of hardening element additions and produce a material whose strength and toughness are highly sensitive to processing.
In another known precipitation hardenable stainless steel the elements chromium, nickel, aluminum, carbon, and molybdenum are critically balanced in the alloy. In addition, manganese, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and nitrogen are maintained at low levels in order not to detract from the desired combination of properties provided by the alloy.
While the known precipitation hardenable, stainless steels have hitherto provided acceptable properties, a need has arisen for an alloy that provides better strength together with at least the same level of notch toughness and corrosion resistance provided by the known precipitation hardenable, stainless steels. An alloy having higher strength while maintaining the same level of notch toughness and corrosion resistance, particularly resistance to stress corrosion cracking, would be particularly useful in the aircraft industry because structural members fabricated from such alloys could be lighter in weight than the same parts manufactured from currently available alloys. A reduction in the weight of such structural members is desirable since it results in improved fuel efficiency.
Given the foregoing, it would be highly desirable to have an alloy which provides an improved combination of stress-corrosion resistance, strength, and notch toughness while being easily and reliably processed.